Long-term survival of patients with chest pain syndrome and angiographically normal or near-normal coronary arteries: the additional prognostic value of dipyridamole echocardiography test (DET).

AIMS Patients with normal coronary arteries have a heterogeneous prognosis. Aim of this study was to assess whether dipyridamole stress echocardiography positivity identifies a prognostically less benign subset. METHODS AND RESULTS We selected 457 patients (245 males; 56+/-10 years) who underwent stress high-dose dipyridamole echocardiography and had angiographically non-significant (<50% visually assessed) stenosis in any major vessel and preserved left ventricular function. All patients were followed up for a median of 7.1 years (first quartile 5 and third quartile 10.5). Dipyridamole echocardiography test (DET) positivity for regional dysfunction occurred in 43(9%) patients. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates showed a significant better outcome for those patients with negative dipyridamole echocardiography test compared with those with a positive test (90 vs. 75.7%, at 140 months of follow-up, P=0.0018). At multivariable analysis, mild or moderate irregularity on coronary arteriogram (HR=3.3, CI 95%=1.7-6.2), diabetes (HR=3.5, CI 95%=1.4-9.2), and wall motion score index at peak stress (HR=6.7, CI 95%=2.5-17.8) were independent predictors of all-cause death. CONCLUSION DET adds incremental value to the prognostic stratification achieved with clinical and angiographic data in the subset of patients with normal or near-normal coronary arteries.